My feelings exactly....

I think this little guy sums up exactly how I feel when I think about my time in France.

Some thoughts.....

Alright so I couldn't tell you how many times I came back to this post, editing it and re-writing it. I'm finding it really hard to write this post for some reason. So let's start with the basics. I'm back home in Canada now. It feels so good to be home. And by "feel" I mean emotionally, not physically. It's disgustingly hot here, thank the gods for AC, that's all I have to say. I'm really excited to be able to hang out with all my friends again--they're just as nuts as when I left them! LMAO I kid.....not really though. As much as I'm glad that I'm back with my old friends, I still miss my new friends. I talk to them, yes, but it's not the same. When you live in a residence together, you end up seeing each other everyday. You become close pretty quickly. And having to say goodbye to them is not an easy task, but unfortunately it has to be done.

If you're considering studying abroad--no matter what the country--do it. Do it now. This is your chance, don't let it pass you by. I couldn't tell you how many times I wanted to back out, tell my parents to forget it all and go on with my life. But I didn't. Thank God I didn't. Only those who have been on exchange know what it's like. It's incredibly difficult, almost impossible, to explain the experience to people who've never done it. It's an enriching experience that only a select few can say they've done and that many can say they wish they did. By going on exchange to a strange country, you're showing courage and perseverance. You're doing something that excites you and terrifies you at the same time. Embrace it. Face it head on and you'll see it was well worth it. You're going to gain a new view on numerous things. You'll appreciate your family and friends more (or less, depending on your situation....). You'll see your home country in a new light. You'll see that everyone in the world isn't as strange and exotic as you thought it was And you'll learn that the world isn't as big, bad and scary as you think it is.

When it comes down to it, I'm really glad I did what I did. I'm glad I didn't chicken out of the exchange program. I'm glad my parents allowed me to go on exchange. I'm glad I met the people I met. And I'm glad I got to travel to so many places. I'll never forget my 5 months abroad.

UK Adventures: London

Alright so I left you off with our adventures in Scotland. We took the cheapest route to London (thank you Megabus) and we arrived there 10 hours later (give or take). So then we had to find our hotel.......simple enough? Sure. If it wasn't the Jubilee weekend. We walked into the subway and HOLY BALLS BATMAN! There was a shart-load of people there. Lots of them were sporting various red, white and blue accoutrements and thing-a-ma-jiggers with union jacks on them. So there we were, 3 North Americans who had never been to London before trying to figure out how to work this Tube-thing. To buy an Oyster card or not to buy an Oyster card? We bought them, and they were shnazzy Jubilee ones too! So we managed to find the right track and of course it was packed with people.......some kid's backpack was smooshed into my back. So there I was trying to make sure my luggage was stolen or in anyone's way, already standing funny because of said luggage and then this damn kid and his family come on and oh sheesh yall I felt like one of those cartoon characters getting folded in a beach chair. My back was getting pushed out, causing my ass and upper bits to be pushed back which causes your legs (in a normal situation) to adjust accordingly. Well my legs couldn't so I grabbed onto one of those bars and hoped no one moved suddenly, otherwise we would've been like dominoes down there. So blah blah blah we made it to the hotel and decided that the rest of the day would be a chill day for us.

The next day we decided that before I would have to register for courses we would hit the British Museum. And guess what? It's freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Well unless you want to see something that isn't in the permanent collection, otherwise, it's FREEEEEEE!!!!!!! After that we went back to the hotel so that I could fight for a place in SOLAR. And here I was thinking that I'm registering as a 4th year, this is the first day of registration, how hard can it be? Let me tell you something, NOTHING GOOD comes from thinking/saying these words, nothing!!! I sat there clicking for an hour and a half until I finally got in. And since I don't want to start ranting, that's all I'm going to say about that......

But that night....ooooooooo the fun-ness that is public concerts! We made our way to Hyde Park to watch the big screens the BBC had set up for people to watch the Jubilee Concert.  Yaaayyyy!!! Free music!!!!!! The park was packed with people, like sardine packed, luckily the areas not directly under the screens were comfortably occupied--you had sprawl space is what I'm saying. We got there when Kylie Minogue was performing and we left after the fireworks. I have to say, that was probably one of my favourite parts--if not my favourite part--of our trip to London. There's something about being apart of a crowd, singing along/destroying a song, and cheering and clapping for the Queen. I don't think my American friends appreciated the occasion as much as I did, but I still think they enjoyed themselves.

The next day we went to Harrods to make ourselves feel poor--and that's all I'm saying about that else I become sad. We also hit the Victoria and Albert museum where they had a temporary exhibition on Ballgowns and you bet your balls that I went and paid for it!! Gaaaahhh! The only thing stopping me from stealing those dresses was the fact that they wouldn't fit me.

Welcome to London...

What else did we do? Get caught in a shit-storm of people. Herds, literally herds of people on or near Hyde park. Our bus was stuck in traffic (people traffic, not car traffic) for almost a half hour and by the time we hit the the actual intersection we still had to wait for the crowds to stop crossing the street when the cops were trying to stop them. Seriously people, if a cop is holding out his arms and blocking the other folks from crossing, what makes you think you can cross? Don't make me slap a bitch!! Eventually the bus let us off--not where we wanted to be mind you. It turns out we were left not too far from St James Park, and for those of you who don't know that's where Buckingham Palace is. ANNNNNNNNNNNDDD it just so happened that on that particular day there was going to be a shnazzy little fly-by by the British Army and we saw it. There were red, white and blue streaks in the air......but you couldn't look up at them for long cause it was raining.

Yep that's M&Ms world.

So to escape said rain we hightailed it to M&Ms world. We had seen some kids with bags from there and I'm 90% sure I said these words: "I need to go there", so we did. And I was scared for my life. There was so many people there it's not even funny. I was concerned that some kid hopped up on candied chocolate goodness would plough through me and I would end up over the railing and right on the M&Ms version of the Beatles walking over Abbey road. Luckily that didn't happen and we made it out of there in one piece. Also, and quite surprisingly, we made it out of there by some act of God with absolutely no chocolate. And then we caved and went to Regent street for some retail therapy. OK we didn't actually buy anything but still.....OOOOOOOO Hollister with your sexy shirtless male models standing and greeting people at your front doors and your suspiciously dark store. OOOOOO H&M with your not so terrible prices and tons of shoes.

On our last day we decided that we should probably do the tourist-y thing and see the sites. We hit the major ones: Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace (as much as you could see with it still being cleaned up from the celebrations),  the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey........and I think I got all of them on that list. And so our UK adventures were over. We headed back to France. I was really glad that I got to spend my last night in Vichy with 2 of my new friends. We spent that night packing, being silly and blaming Julie for things. It's fun to blame Julie. Car won't start? Julie! Weather sucks? Julie!!!!! Stocks down? JULIE!!!!!!!!! It's fun, you should try it.

To those who read my blog posts, I thank you. I hope I've been keeping you entertained these past few months and I hope to continue to entertain you all! To those who don't read my blog.....well there's no point in bitching at you because you'll never see it, ya bastards. So au revoir for now! The next post I write will be from Canada.

Heeeeeeeyyy Prince Harry ;)

Also, here's a picture of Prince Harry. OOOhh haaaaaiiiiiii Prince Harry. Didn't see you there in your sexy uniform and your cheeky smile! Please tell me you just read that last bit like the creepy old guy from Family Guy....that is all.

Adventures in the UK: Scotland

So now that our adventure/final vacation together is over I thought I should share the experience with you. The UK was lovely. As soon as I got there I loved it. It was love at first sight!

So let's start with the flight to Edinburgh. We flew out of Paris Beauvais, which is not in Paris btw. We flew in at around 11 pm and we had to navigate to our hostel via bus and our feet. We stayed at some hostel in Edinburgh for the night and in the morning we hopped on a bus to Inverness. Inverness was lovely--grey and gloomy--but lovely all the same. We counted churches on our walk through the city one day, and if I'm not mistaken, we got to 10 within the same area (how many churches do you people need??). On our last day in Inverness we bussed it over to Loch Ness. It has some of the most stunning views there. And no, no Loch Ness monster--Nessie was on vacation that day.

No that is not Nessie in the photo, that is in fact a boat. The more you know...

High Street in Edinburgh. Y'arr! Thar be sun in dis here picture!

Once we were back in Edinburgh I made my friends go with me on a ghost tour!! DUN DUN DUUUNNN! Nah, it wasn't that scary. If anything, I was more scared of the environment we were in then the ghosties themselves. Our fantastic tour-guide Ian so kindly told us that the water dripping from Edinburgh's Underground Vaults (which we were about to go into) were toxic. Lovely. He told us there were rats there. Awesome. People get attacked in the prison we were visiting. Beauty. Anything else? Oh ya, it was raining that night and there are lots of hills covered in cobblestone streets--which are totally not slippery when wet! Bring on the ghosties baby! Aaaaannnnnnnnnnnddd there were none. So we went home. haha kind of an uneventful story, eh? We ventured back to Greyfriar's cemetery that we had visited on the ghost tour, during the day of course. Our tour-guide told us that many characters from the "Harry Potter" series were inspired by names found in that cemetery. We tried finding them, especially Tom Riddle, but we just couldn't find them! So near the entrance we saw some people who looked like they worked there. Oh boy were they characters....they made many, jokes I guess is the word, with us--awkwardness ensued. But they were actually pretty funny. They were also tour-guides with the same company that Ian worked for, except they weren't working at that second so they offered to show us the graves. Along the way they kept making fun of each other--complete with some rather witty remarks about one of the guide's back that was ailing him. For those of you who were there to hear that joke....I think you know what I'm saying when I say "ZING!!". We saw the various graves and I can safely say that I indeed found Tom Riddle (minor spelling differences than what was on the grave but who cares...). Humour me whilst I say this, "I FOUND VOLDEMORT!" But anywho, after some wandering around Edinburgh, trying some whiskey (which I do not recommend), trying some haggis (not that bad actually, although now I think they make it with good meat and not the bits no one wants) we said "see you later" to our lovely German friend Florian and hopped on a bus to London.

VOLDEMORT!!!

Things I will miss about Vichy/ France

And now to the list of things that I will miss about Vichy/ France:

• Being able to walk in my p-jay-jays (pyjamas for you people not accustomed with my funny talk) over to a friend’s room and be like “hey, what are we doing tonight. I still have a bottle of wine that I need to finish”....unless parents or relatives read this then I said "Hey let's watch a Disney movie and go to bed at 9:30 with a glass of warm milk!".....*nervous laugh*
• Chilling by the river playing Uno...........with a bunch of cheaters!!!!!! It’s a conspiracy I tell you! Why must you give ME the “pick-up 2 cards”?!?!?
• Making fun of each other because of our accents. It’s “milk” not “melk”, “peacan” not “pecahn”, “process” not “prawcess”.....the list goes on people...
• Travelling adventures: Paris, London, Nimes, Venice, Edinburgh, Florence.....
• Cheap French wine.
• Mischievousness in general. And by mischievousness, I of course mean doing stupid things that aren't actually bad but could be perceived that way by the most prudish of people. Leaning over a Venetian canal however, is rather silly. I’m looking at you Julie. JULIE!!!!

Look at this kid leaning on over the canal! She so crazy!

• French cheese. Brie, Salers, St. Nectaire..... *drools*
• Being independent. I still will be to an extent at home, but it’s interesting to see how you adapt to being on your own having to fend for yourself. Which reminds me....
• My cooking concoctions. Hmmm I have some mushrooms.....some balsamic vinegar.....and tuna.........let’s see where this goes.
• Being able to eat nuts. Bye-bye nutella, peanut butter, cashews, peanuts, chocolate with nut warnings on them, nociollo gelato *tear* this list is too long!
• My friends. Yes people, I took it there. I took it to cheese-ville and I’m not coming back. I miss them already and it’s only been a few days. Some are going back to the States, others are hanging around Europe for a while....because they live there but, minor detail....
• I'll also miss seeing this poster everyday on the way to school at Spar (grocery store). Everytime I saw it I could not help but think "pain is here?! I don't want that!" but then I'd remember "pain" in french is "bread" in english.....good job Christina

  

  I think this is what French wrestlers say.

Leave a comment if I forgot anything!

Things I won't miss about Vichy/ France

My how time flies when you're having fun. 4 months of studying in Vichy, France are now over and soon I’ll be headed home. 2 weeks and I’m back in Canada. 2 weeks and I don't have to say “why is that French woman wearing a fur coat?! It’s 25 degrees out!?!?” (NB: I admit I paraphrased that, but it legit happened). In honour of the end of my semester abroad, I shall now present you with a list of things that I will not miss about Vichy and France:

• Dog poop
• God-damned dirt bikes and scooters (to hell with thee heathens!!!!!!!!)
• Drunk Frenchmen singing their national anthem at midnight
• Loud Frenchmen
• Smelly Frenchmen
• French work hours (35 hour work week?! Seriously?!?!)
• The damn SNCF jingle. I. HATE. YOU. You are too damn perky. When my dang train is late and I’m tired and I want to go home I don't want to hear: da-du-DA-DU. No! Shut up! Go be a jingle somewhere else!!!
• French people making fun of English people because they don't speak French. Hello? I’m right here, I know what you’re saying, stupid. And just for that, I’m going to make fun of you, IN ENGLISH! MUAHAHHAHAHA!!!! No but seriously bro, you have to make sure I don't speak the language first.
• European room heaters. They. Don't. Work. Got it? Good.
• Always washing in hot water. This kind of ties in with the previous point. They wash in hot water all the time, they don't even have an option to wash in cold water. The coldest they have is 30 degrees. Their heaters are radiators (from what I understand...don’t judge me! I’m not a handy woman I don’t know these things!), which means they use hot water. This means that in combination with washing in hot water, they are costing themselves a shart-load in heating costs. You’re wasting money and energy is what I’m saying.....
• French people telling me that because I’m Canadian I should speak English AND French. Uhm, how about no?
• Having to cook/clean for myself. Dear sweet Jesus how I miss my mother’s cooking! How I miss a dishwasher! How I miss an oven and more than one burner to cook with! Gaah!! People, heed my words! Don’t ever take your mother or your kitchen for granted! Don't do it!

The Final Stretch

How time flies. I've been here in France for almost 4 months now. I go home in roughly another month. I still remember how sad I was when I had to say bye to my parents as they left to go back to Canada. Now all I can think about is how I can't wait until they come and meet me in Italy. I only have one week left here in Vichy. Woah. It feels like yesterday when I kept thinking "it's only __ months til I go home". And now it's here. I've already written my exams. I've done my last presentations and papers. I've started packing and starting thinking about how I'll have to kiss Vichy goodbye in a few days.

I'm kind of dreading saying goodbye to all of my new friends. I've already said bye to one (shout out to Johanna!). You can't stop yourself from thinking "Are we actually going to keep in touch? Are we actually going to visit each other like we say we will? Will we still be friends 1, 3, 8 years from now?". I try not to think about these things but you can't avoid the questions. You also don't have the answers, which makes it more difficult to avoid the questions......damn them questions! So until I have to face these questions and concerns head on, I'm going to distract myself with mine and my friends' upcoming trip.

Oh Sheesh Y'all!! I'm crazy excited for this, so I'm going to try and tell you all about it without freaking the fudge out.

This is me, on the inside.

Nessie?

So my friends I decided that we NEED to go on one last trip with each other before we all head home. The UK? Uhm, yes please?!?! Some lovely Scottish or English men? Yes, with a side order of adorable accent please. First it's off to Scotland for a dose of Edinburgh and Inverness (Loch Ness is why we're going there FYI) and then it's down to London. I'm kinda excited, not gona lie. I want to go hunting for the Loch Ness monster, Nessie. I hear she's kind of a recluse, I'll lure her out.....with cookies. No one can say no to cookies, not even a damn water monster!

London. Oh God London is a week away from my grasp!! I'm sooooooooo excited. Not like you can tell though. We'll be there during the Queen's Jubilee. The whhhaaA? Her Jubilee stupid. It's been like forever since she became queen, so they're celebrating it, basically. Anywhos, I'm tired and have things to do, so I'll keep you posted.....by posting stuff. So ya. Ciaoness!

The Italian Job: Part 2

Wow it took me quite a while for post number 2 but that's ok. For the second part of our journey in Italy, we ventured to Florence and Naples. So let's start with Florence shall we? So we get off the train and somehow find our way to the "hostel". You see, the thing is, we had no idea how to get into this place. We get there, we look around and we know that this is the right address. We press the little button on the intercom....and the cleaning lady lets us in. How do we know it's the cleaning lady? Because when we got inside and up the 2nd flight of stairs she was there and told us. And then we trudged our stuff and our butts up to the top floor (6 flights of stairs if you're wondering). The owner wasn't there and we needed to pay her....ok so where were you then? Anywho, this place is less of a hostel and more of an apartment with rooms...as opposed to an apartment without rooms.....but ya it was a nice change from the cabin we stayed in in Venice. We wandered around the first night, but the second day we did some museum hopping and visited the duomo (well more specifically the church but since I can't remember what it's called....). When we arrived back at the hostel that night at almost 11, who shows up? The owner. How lovely you decided to grace us with your presence. All snarkiness aside she was quite a lovely lady and apologized multiple times for not being there.

This statue is totally not creepy whatsoever

The next day we reveled in my new two favourite words: culture week. We went to the Galeria Accademia (probably didn't spell that right), which for those of you uncultured fools who don't know it, Michelangelo's famous sculpture "David" is housed there. So ya, it's kinda a big deal, and it was FREEEEEEEE!!! That's 9.50 euros in my pocket thank you very much. We saw a lovely Palace complete with creepy statues (see picture). After that we did something.....what did we do? Well I don't know cause I can't remember now....OHhhh I remember, we made a reservation at the Uffizi Gallery (also for the uncultured: a very large and very important art museum) which also had free tickets. AAAWHADUP Culture Week!  Oh my sweet lord I almost forgot to mention the epic goodness that is gelato. And not just any friggin gelato, oh no, it's gelato from Antica Gelateria Fiorentina. FOR THE GOOD OF YOURSELF AND HUMANITY GO THERE if you are ever in Florence. Do try the peanut butter and chocolate gelato--it's heaven in frozen cream form.

Next up: Naples. Oh Naples.....ya. So, ok, to be frank, we were forewarned about the level of sketch that is the Naples Train Station (or whatever it's called) but we were not warned about the city itself. Cars. Everywhere. I swear we ran the gauntlet everytime we crossed the streets--which you will have to do at some point or another every hour. The entire city is sketchy, dirty and just bleh. But our Hostel, the lovely and quirky Hostel of the Sun. All of the reviews were fantastic and we were like hey, why not stay with 4 strangers in a sketch city? So we did! And it was lovely. Very first thing that one of the owners did? As soon as he found out my name he would yell it every single time he saw me. No joke. We were in our room which had a balcony and on said balcony they hung laundry which meant he was coming in and out every couple of minutes with laundry and a hearty "BONAVENTURA!". But our first day there was the only time we saw him *tear*, he was rather amusing. But the rest of the staff was lovely. They were quite amused by me. One time we had come back from an adventure and we had to buzz ourselves into the building. I guess I didn't press the button hard enough cause after the third try and some harder button pushing the lady goes "Christina?!?! What are you doing? You've been standing there for 20 mins!" and she lets us in. Then she goes "I saw you standing there for like 3 days and I was laughing!" and I was glad I could amuse her but I couldn't help but think "WHY DIDN'T YOU OPEN THE DOOR THEN!?!??!" but I digress... whilst in Naples we also basked in the free-ness that is culture week. We got in free to the National Archeological Museum and to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum--that's a solid 26 euros saved!! *insert girlish squeals here*

Mkay so now it's time to be serious. When we were in Pompeii and looking at the plaster casts, it was difficult to explain the feeling you get whilst looking at them. One in particular was heart-wrenching (see picture). That little bird bath you see beside it is where people throw coins (they aim for it, they miss quite a bit though) kinda like offerings or blessings. Each of the 4 plaster casts had a little basin with coins in it. I feel like this cast captures how it must have felt for the people of Pompeii--scared out of their minds and praying to the gods to save them.

So I didn't want to end my post off on a sad note, soooooooo here's a funny picture:

This is how you make love to the camera

The Italian Job: Part 1

Well hey there. I haven't posted in a while, but that's because I've been busy gearing up for a 2 week trip to Italy! Our program in Vichy allows us to have 2 weeks (2 WEEKS?!!!?? yes, i said 2) for Easter Break. Fantastic! So about a month or so ago my friends and I were trying to figure out just what the heck we were going to do for this break. Everyone else in the program seems to have had their trips planned since they got to France....maybe they knew something we didn't.....but anyways, I already knew I was going to Italy for Easter to see family. So my friend Julie and I (shout outs to Julie! even though you're sitting right beside me as I type this hahah!) decided that we would voyage through some Italian cities for our break.

First stop, Torino. It was lovely--I got to spend time with some family that I don't get to see very often and I got to have some home cooking. Gosh how I miss not having to cook. I'm so not taking mom's cooking for granted again. You can quote me. When Julie arrived in Torino, her and I visited the Egyptian Museum there--yes we said hey to the mummies. And then we were off to Venice, oh Venice....IT FREAKIN RAINED, the entire time. Only one day was it sunny, and then it was freezing that night. Did I mention we stayed at a campground in a cabin? No? Well I'm mentioning it now. It was a lovely campground, it really was, we liked it, but it's too cold to stay there at this time of year. But other then that Venice is awesome....and so is the gelato! Ya I'm going to be honest here and say that we pretty much had gelato every single day there. Right now we're in Florence. It's rainy too, but at least we're not at the sea where there's wind to freeze your land-lubbin' bones.....but I digress. Florence is pretty cool. I'm kinda irritated at the Uffizi though. Like frik bro, you know that you have terrible ques--you even tell people to book online to avoid said redonkulous ques, and yet you do nothing about it? Fer realsies?!?!? And it's Culture Week here in Italy and according to the Uffizi website tickets are free, but if you book online you pay for that. Mkay, cool beans.....where's my free ticket? I expect a free ticket when I'm told "free tickets", just saying.

Anywhos, I don't have pictures of Bella Italia to show to you guys at this moment as me, a.k.a. Dumb-dumb didn't bring the cord to connect her camera to her computer. So, mi scusi, you have to wait. Now, I'm not bragging, but I took some pretty rad photos. Don't be jealous though, some people are just gifted and some are not--me being the gifted one of course, in case you didn't get that.

One last point about Florence, at least for today, is the Shoe Museum. But not just any shoe museum, a Ferragamo shoe museum. "Holy Shitballs!"--yes I just heard you yell that. We just got back from there, sadly we were uninformed fools! We should have gone earlier and not an hour before closing time! There are soooooo many of his gorgeous shoes to oggle! There's documentaries and even a little movie theatre to watch some videos! I'm so sad that we had to leave....I want a Ferragamo!!!! :(

 http://www.museoferragamo.it/en/

Uhm, how fast can you guys ship these? Thanks Google Images!